September 2007
3 posts
Learn languages on Mango Beta →
This just launched recently, and looks like a great way to begin learning Spanish or German, etc. More languages are available on this beta site.
100 Web Resources for Lifelong Learners →
VideoJug for downloads to Ipod, PSP
I just bought myself a video iPod yesterday. I was very excited at the thought of all of the tutorials and DIY-type video I could download until I discovered that iTunes didn’t have a large variety of free video podcasts. It seems that most of what iTunesU offers is audio. And you cannot download from YouTube. Sure, there are tools out there, but as soon as they evolve, YouTube changes their...
August 2007
10 posts
Discovering the flower known as Eryngium →
I saw a photo of this featured today here on NPR. I’d never seen or heard of this flower before, but it’s the most beautiful, brilliant indigo color I’ve ever seen.
My word of the day: Riparian
I just heard the word riparian for the first time ever today used twice in an NPR story on the California levees and wondered what the heck it meant. Now I know. I love coming across new words, scribbling them down during my commute and then looking them up later. Words are like jewels to me, each one as precious as the one before, and no two ever exactly the same, like snowflakes. Plus, words are...
Hyperpolyglotic Gmail →
According to Wikipedia, the world’s most accomplished hyperpolyglot is Ziad Fazah. This guy can readily communicate in 58 (f-i-f-t-y e-i-g-h-t) languages.
Notefish →
Have research to do online? Try Notefish to help you keep track of the links you’ve visited and save bits of info for later reference as you go along.
Emily Chang's e-Learning links →
100 Great Tips to Improve Your Life →
Online guide for fiction writers →
Write a Novel is a form of open courseware: Learning materials placed online for free use by anyone who wishes to do so. At this point, it is an experiment; if it succeeds, Capilano College may create more such guides, along the lines pioneered by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The guide contains 18 items, PDF documents that give you some basic information on topics related to writing...
Even Harry Potter teaches new words
Even a well-read adult who considers herself a partial word maven can learn a new word now and then, and even while reading what began as a kid’s book and morphed into a global phenomenon — Harry Potter. I was reading the second book, “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,” today. And as is my usual habit, I folded the page to save my place when I ran across an...
Great site for learning to cook
There are a host of cooking sites out there these days, so many that you could hardly visit them all on a regularly set schedule. But you may want to put this one near the top of your list. Called Rouxbe, it features simple, free videos on how to make featured dishes from start to finish. And unlike watching cooking shows in the past, you don’t have to take notes or have a photographic...
Become an autodidact
For having such an unassuming title, Dumb Little Man’s blog is an EXCELLENT resource for those educational, time-saving and relevant lifehacks. Check out 10 Ways to Become a Self-Taught Master and see if you agree. I learned one additional thing just by reading DLM’s blog post when I discovered it randomly a few days ago, via an RSS feed — basically what an autodidact is —...
July 2007
1 post
Love words? Create a personal lexicon
It’s great to learn new things, but when you can record this knowledge for continued use, you multiply the benefits. Speaking of tools for this purpose, it came to my attention today that I already have quite a few cool widgets at my disposal to help me, right in my own Apple arsenal, as a Mac owner. Who knew?
Some people collect baseball cards. I collect words. And until today, I...